


Too many jobs

by spiderisis



Series: Marvel one shots [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Burn Out, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad Bingo 2019, One Shot, Peter Parker is a Mess, Short One Shot, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26877754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderisis/pseuds/spiderisis
Summary: Peter has like 3 different jobs besides college and patrol 'cause May is sick and USA health insurance sucks ass
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Marvel one shots [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1846642
Comments: 2
Kudos: 87





	Too many jobs

xxxxx

Peter rubs his eyes for the tenth time in five minutes and Tony lets out a sigh.

"What's up kid?"

Peter looks up at the billionaire. "You know I'm 21, right?"

When Tony just quirks up an eyebrow Peter huffs. "Just exhausted."

After high school Peter, stupidly, thought he would have more time. He doesn't. 

While in high school the spiderling only had patrol and school to worry about, now he has to manage that, plus the absurd amount of assignments that come with college, lab time and training at the tower and his three - yes three - jobs on the side to pay the hospital bills, because the health insurance company is being ass, and actually he has a meeting with his lawyer tomorrow.

In short, it's been a lot. 

"I've noticed."

Peter isn't surprised at that. He's never been good with hiding how he feels. 

"Well, are you gonna tell me what's going on, or are you going to keep staring at that suit? I know it's hard to keep your eyes of such amazing craftmanship, but I'm trying to talk to you here."

"You know I made like 60% of that suit."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Not even close."

With that the man gets more serious. "What's going on? Is it college?"

"Among other things", Peter sighs. 

Tony frowns. He knows Peter has cut down on patrol, so how come the bags under his eyes have gotten worse? Is school stressing him out that much?

MIT is stressful, but Tony didn't think it would drag the kid down this much.

"You know what," the older man stands up, "we're gonna have a movie night, just like back when you where in high school."

Peter gnaws at his cheek. "I actually.. can't", he says while darting is eyes to the floor. 

"This has been the first time you are around here in three months, you have been zoning out fidgeting the past hour constantly, and, I'm sorry kid, but you look like you've been hit by a truck. I know this can't just be from MIT."

"It's uh.." Peter knows he's overworking himself, but he doesn't want Tony's help. Besides, his lawyer says the hospital bills should be gone in a month. He said that last month, and the month before that, and the month before that, but maybe this time he does something instead of just inhaling Peter's money. 

Suddenly his eyes fall onto the clock and he sees that it's a quarter to five o'clock.

"Shit," Peter says as he jumps up. "I'm really sorry, but I have to go to work. If I'm late again, my boss will literally kill me." 

He swiftly puts his project away, grabs his jacket and runs out of the lab.

Before Tony can take in what happened, the twenty one year old is gone. 

"Work?"

Stark frowns and walks to the other end of the lab. 

"FRIDAY please pull up everything you've got about Peter's job."

"I'm not allowed to do that, boss."

With that, Tony's frown comes back. 

"Override that order", he says while taking a sip of his coffee. 

"You told me to never override Mr Parker his orders boss."

"Parker said not to tell me anything about his job?"

"That's right boss."

"Yeah something's definitely wrong here", Tony mutters. "Override the order anyway."

"Whatever you say. What did you want me to bring up?"

"His job?" FRIDAY never asked things twice, she's an AI it's not like she can forget.

"Yes, but which one boss?"

"I-" Honestly, Stark didn't know what to say. Did the kid have multiple jobs besides Spider-Man and school?

"Uh, just do the one he was so stressed about just now."

"Of course."

While Tony takes another sip of his coffee, multiple holograms appear about a small frozen yogurt shop in Queens. 

"Now why would he try to hide this", Tony mumbles.

After a minute or two Stark sees the paygrade which is just, wow, that's low. Why would Peter work in such a dump when he is literally a genius?

"FRIDAY pull up the information on Peter's other job."

"Uh," For the first time, the AI sounded hesitant, "which one boss?"

Tony looks up at the ceiling. "What??"

"Which job do you want me to show?"

Stark sets his coffee mug down. "How many jobs does Peter have?" he asks the AI.

"With Spider-Man included, he has four jobs in total boss."

"You've got to be kidding me. Call Peter."

After a moment of silence FRIDAY's voice echoes through the room again. "Karen says that he is talking to his boss at the moment."

"Sent me trough anyway."

Not even thirty seconds later, Tony was talking to Peter. 

"Tony, I really can't talk right now", Parker said in a hushed voice. Besides a bit panicked, he mainly just sounded exhausted. Even more so than about fifteen minutes ago.

"The hell are you doing working in a frozen yoghurt shop?"

He hears Peter sigh at the other end of the line and can imagine how he's rubbing his forehead with his thumb and index finger. 

"Parker put your phone away, or this is going to be a shorter talk then I imagined." The voice is muffled and in the background, but it's clear enough that Tony can hear the edge to it.

"Can we talk about this later? I swear I'll explain everything."

"After your shift you're going straight to the tower. End call."

"But-" 

Peter sighs and rubs a hand over his face when he hears the beeping sound on the other end of the phone.

"Are you done, Parker?"

Peter puts his phone in his pocket and turns around to look at his boss, Mr Greenwich.

"Yes, I'm sorry but it was about-"

"You're fired." Greenwich doesn't even look at Peter when he says it.

His mouth falls open, after a second or two Peter lets out a nervous chuckle.

"You don't mean that, right?"

His boss sighs and looks up from the newspaper he was reading. "You've been late to all your shifts, you've fallen asleep while you're supposed to working on multiple occasions, and you have mixed up so many orders I think you've set a record. I'm sorry, kid, but I can't afford you any longer."

"I- I still get a paycheck, right?" 

"Just one, after that you're on your own." 

Peter nods, and about an hour later he's standing in his rented $1495 very shitty apartment in New York City. 

He would've stayed in Queens but this was the cheapest apartment he could find in a week after he got evicted.

He takes about twenty minutes to get from his apartment to the tower, and luckily he could attend online classes. He didn't tell Tony about that though. The man would be disappointed, and that's the last thing he needed even though it seemed like the man was already disappointed without knowing that fact.

Peter flicks the light switch, but nothing happens. Great, his electricity got cut off again. That means going to Ned's house to follow classes tomorrow. Thor knows it wouldn't be the first time.

Why was he here again?

Right, he needed his suit so that to go on patrol while on his way to the tower. 

It's bad, Peter knows that, but with everything going on he is using Spider-Man as a very slow means of transport just to get in some sort of patrol.

After about forty minutes he crawls through a window to get in to the tower. He stopped two muggers, brought a stray dog to a shelter and walked three different people home. 

When he is standing in the common room, the light switches on and Tony is standing a few feet away from him. 

The man lets out a sigh. "You're going to be the death of me, kid."

A nervous chuckle comes from Spider-Man. "I get that a lot", he says while pulling off the mask.

"So, what's going on."

When Peter opens his mouth to tell some half-truths, Tony interrupts. "And I want to know everything, if you don't tell me, I will find out another way."

"Yeah." It wasn't a threat, it was the truth, and Peter knew that.

The spiderling opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, before just putting his head in his hands and sighing.

"I don't know where to start", he finally breaths out while looking back up at Tony. 

"Well, why don't you start with answering this question: 'Why do you have four jobs?'"

"It's uh, three actually."

Stark gives Peter a stern look, and the latter takes a deep breath. 

Then, everything he has been pushing away for the past four months comes spilling out. 

"May's in the hospital. She got diagnosed with a sickness half a year ago. In the beginning it wasn't that bad, but after two months it started getting way worse. She couldn't work anymore, which meant no income. With all the bills piling up, including the new hospital bills, I had to do something. In the same week that May got moved in to the hospital, we got evicted. I've been going from house to house since, 'cause I can't pay for anything, and it's not like I have a million dollars lying around, so that's why I had to put up with four, sometimes five, jobs at a time."

Tears are in Peter's eyes. 

It takes a moment for Tony to take all the information in, but when he does, he just shakes his head.

"Why didn't you ask?"

Peter lets out a trembling breath. "I was scared. I am scared. I know it would be best for May, but she's been taken care of me my entire life, so when the roles turned around, I didn't want to give up. I've got this hero-complex, and it's dumb, and I'm so selfish. I should've called. I should've- it's just-"

"Just-" Tony sighs, "Just know I'm not dissapointed, nor mad."

"You will be." Peter wipes his nose on his sleeve. "God, I feel like such a kid", he mutters under his breath.

"What now?"

"I'm not in MIT."

Tony's eyebrows furrow. "What?"

"Well, I am in MIT, but I'm not _in_ MIT. I'm taking online classes."

"Why would you think I would be dissapointed because of that? No, of course I'm not dissapointed about that. I just wished you would talk to me for once. It's not a crime to ask for help."

With a sigh, Peter sits down on the couch. "Why does it feel like one then?" 

Tony sits down next to him and lays his hand on his shoulder. "You've proven yourself to me over a thousand times, I hope you realize that soon."

Peter looks at his hands. "I'm- yeah."

They sit in silence for a moment when Tony clears his throat and clasps Peter on his back. "Now go to sleep so that you have enough energy to get this all sorted tomorrow."

The student looks up at Stark with a weak smile. "Thanks."

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up a lot longer than I first expected it to, but oh well.
> 
> I kinda hate it. 
> 
> Yeah I think it was better in my head..
> 
> N e ways I hope you have a good day!!


End file.
